Goals & Methods

Goals and Objectives of the CHILD Studies Program

My CHILD Studies research program, funded initially by my Canada Research Chair in Healthy Child Development and now by my Palix/ACHF Chair in Parent-Infant Mental Health, focuses on studying parent-child relationships, child mental health, neurodevelopment and other child health outcomes affected by “toxic stressors” such as maternal depression, family violence, and substance abuse. I also develop and test interventions to overcome toxic stressors affecting children’s health outcomes. Because parental mental health and child mental health, particularly in infancy and early childhood, are so closely tied, I often study these concepts in combination. Thus, my research focuses on studying toxic stressors, in the parenting context, to children’s mental health, neurodevelopment and other health outcomes.

The goal of the program will be achieved by four objectives:

To understand environmental predictors of children’s neurodevelopment, mental health and other health outcomes with a focus on parental perinatal distress (primarily depression, anxiety and biological substrates linked to stress such as cortisol)